China carbon emissions may be overstated: scientist

LONDON (Reuters) - China's carbon emissions could be much lower than estimated by a U.N. panel of scientists, according to a leading Chinese climate change specialist.

The comments by Professor Wang Yi, director of the climate change research centre at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, add spice to a long-running debate about the accuracy of the country's energy use data.

China is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, so the scale of its emissions has a critical influence on the pace of global climate change.